(Click the picture to read the rest)"Green Industrial Complex." That's an evocative phrase from Brendan O'Neill, writing in The Australian,describing the well-funded effort to convert America and the world to a carbon-free economy--and make billions, even trillions in the process. Here O'Neill zeroes in on the efforts of Al Gore, who sits at the center of this "GIC":
For a snapshot of the government and business interests intertwined in the rise of green capitalism, consider Al Gore. He's getting rich from environmentalism, not just by being paid a whopping $US175,000 ($217,500) a speech but by using political pressure to force government policy in a direction that benefits his business interests.
Gore is chairman of the Alliance for Climate Protection, an outfit that seeks to "persuade people of the importance, urgency and feasibility" of going green. It recently launched a $US300 million ad campaign to coax American people and politicians to embrace the carbon-lite lifestyle.
But Gore is also chairman of a greeninvestment firm called Generation Investment Management, which is a member of the Copenhagen Climate Council, an international collaboration of businesses and science bodies, and which invests in firms that produce renewable energy and low-carbon technology. So Gore uses one of his multimillion-dollar organisations, the Alliance for Climate Protection, to put pressure on government to promote the low-carbon lifestyle that will furnish one of his other multimillion-dollar organisations, General Investment Management, with booming business.
Gore's activities provide only a glimpse into the new collusion between greens, businesses and government. So speedily has this network come together that according to one critic of the politics of environmentalism, Bjorn Lomborg, it is not going too far to liken the new green-industrial complex to the military-industrial complex that president Dwight Eisenhower warned of in the 1950s.
So now, with better timing--and no doubt better lawyers--Jeff Immelt of General Electric picks up the green torch. That's "green" as in the environment, and "green" as in money. The same eco-fiscal scam, is happening today, only this time with the full faith and credit of the US government falling in behind Gore's and Immelt's rent-seeking efforts, thanks to Barack Obama. .....
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Obama Rewards GE With Light Bulb Sales
File this one under the “taking care of those who got me elected” section…
Aiming to keep the focus on climate change legislation, President Barack Obama put a plug in for administration efforts to make lamps and lighting equipment use less energy:
“I know light bulbs may not seem sexy, but this simple action holds enormous promise because 7 percent of all the energy consumed in America is used to light our homes and businesses,” the president said, standing alongside Energy Secretary Steven Chu at the White House.
(To read the full story, click photo)
Au contraire Mr. President. Revenue enhancement is very sexy to General Electric, a company which coincidentally gave over $2 million dollars to the Democrats in 2008.
Of course it is also just coincidence that GE put off selling their lighting division back in December.
Funny, when it comes to the Republicans everything they do is a concerted conspiracy. When it comes to Democrats these things are simply coincidences.
